Three swimmers: Josef Craig, Nicole Lough, and Matthew Wylie from the City of Sunderland Swimming Club were selected to represent Great Britain at this year’s IPC Swimming European Championships held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The trio formed part of a hugely successful team of 31 disability swimmers who between them won an outstanding total of 73 medals of which 30 were gold.
Competing in his first major competition since being reclassified to the S8 disability class, Josef Craig, 17, made a very successful debut winning three bronze medals. His first came in the 400m freestyle where he set a new personal best (PB) of 4.38.14 minutes. He then followed this up with another PB in the 100m freestyle finishing in 1.00.52 minutes. He swam the final leg of the 4 x 100m freestyle (34pts) with team mates Sasha Kindred, Robert Welbourne and James Hollis to bring the team home in third place. Josef also finished 5th in the final of the 50m freestyle.
Nicole Lough, 19, had brilliant swims in both the heat and final of the S14 100m breaststroke event. Her time of 1:17.47 minutes in the heat was a new PB by almost a second and she finished in third place in the final to win a bronze medal.
Matthew Wylie, 17, swimming in his first European Senior competition swam in the s9 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle events. His best result came at the 400m distance where he narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in a new PB of 4:32.79 minutes. Matthew finished 8th in the final of the 50m freestyle and was 10th in the 100m event.
These results highlight the growing success of disability swimming in Sunderland which was further emphasised by the selection of Sunderland’s Lead Performance Coach, Danny Thompson to join the coaching team for the GB disability squad. For Josef, Nicole and Matthew, this meet marked a successful end to a long and very successful season.